Today, April 23 is world book day. This is the second time in a week when I have been thinking about books. Two days earlier Mr. Rajeev dhoj joshi was at ACT360 for one of our external learning sessions to talk about kathalaya and his fascination about reading. So, 15 minutes earlier when I discovered world book day, a compulsion of sorts pushed me into writing something about books and how it has shaped me and the world around me.
During that session, Rajeev had asked us all why is reading important. We had a really good discussion around this question. I have been pondering about the question even now after 48 hours.
Books (blogs or anything written) are memories. And as Bran stark – the three eyed raven puts it, the difference between dead and the alive are memories. So, if you write a book like many exceptional writers have done, you make those memories and yourself immortal.
You may not live to tell the tale of your glory days to your grand children. But you can surely write about those experiences and preserve forever how you felt when you were alive, victorious, defeated, in love, or any other feeling that a mortal experiences during their life time. And centuries later, through your writings, your great grand children would be living those moments through their own imagination.
This brings us to another aspect of reading and books, i.e. its ability to create imagination. As Rajeev pointed out in that session, when you read through books, you will have your own screenplay, your own notion about how a character looks like or will behave. When watching a movie, you are actually just watching somebody else’s imagination. Books and reading in that sense have an unparalleled boost to your imagination.
Books are also a tremendous glossary of experiences which you can refer to whenever you want to understand what others when faced with a similar life problems did. Thia could guide you and help your decision making as well. No wonder, biographical essay of popular and successful people sell like hot cakes.
Apart from these, I also believe that reading helps us learn from several life stories that we share with each other. As we read more, we understand each other more. We understand that there is more to the single stories that we hear and become more humble in appreciating existence of fellow creatures without which we would not be able to craft such an amazing story called life.
Happy Book Day, Happy Reading. 🙂